Microsoft facing 'Red Ring of Zune'?

Strange reports of widespread Microsoft device failures in US

Shares

An as-yet unspecified number of Microsoft Zune 30s stopped working at exactly the same time across the US earlier this week.

Gizmodo reports that "the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless" and that the "crisis has been dubbed by Zune users 'Y2K9', due to the apparently synchronized faceplantings across the country."

A Gizmodo tipster explained that the Zune's appeared to "either reset, or were already off" and that "when turning on, the thing loads up and... freezes with a full loading bar... it seems everyone with a 30GB HDD model has had this happen to them."